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by stardustpaths



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Established Relationship, M/M, sailor!Castiel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-13
Updated: 2013-11-13
Packaged: 2018-01-11 18:13:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1176271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stardustpaths/pseuds/stardustpaths
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The nights before Castiel leaves for the sea are always hard.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Home

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [friend's](http://squeezingmysoul.tumblr.com) birthday.

Dean lay wide awake, listening to Cas’ quiet breathing. The dawn was close, but it was still dark outside. The shadows of the branches moved slowly on the walls. Wind picked up again. Dean swallowed heavily. This was the last night he would see Cas in months. 

Before he'd met Cas, he had always thought that if he ever were to meet the love of his life, he would remember that moment in detail until his last breath. The truth was, the only thing he remembered was Cas standing before him with a slight smile, speaking. He couldn’t recall any words, just a low rumble of Cas’ voice, and a thought that his eyes looked like an overcast sky. He could also remember a salty, fresh smell of seawater, but maybe he imagined it now, knowing Cas was a sailor. Dean guessed they'd had to meet in the antique gift shop he run. Cas had probably wanted to buy something. Dean had no idea what it had been. 

After that, they'd met again sometime later, and Dean had asked Cas out. And just a few dates had managed to leave him with a feeling that he wanted this thing they had to last forever. Then, Cas had disappeared for almost three months, sailing away to some foreign country half around the world, and Dean had understood that it would be much harder than he had thought. 

Somehow, they'd worked it out. Cas had learned he could have a place with someone on the land, someone to come back to. Dean had learned to wait, though it had never become any easier. There still were days when he had to look at his wedding ring, repeating in his head that Cas loved him, that he would come back, that he would be okay. Sometimes he had a feeling that it wasn’t enough. In those moments he asked himself why the best thing in his life was taken away from him again and again. Why Cas seemed to be married more to the sea than to him. And he still hated the nights before Cas left on his next voyage. 

That’s why he lay awake that night, unable to sleep. He traced the shape of Cas’ body with his eyes. It was already sealed in his mind, with all its angles, and scars, and its texture, and how it felt to the touch, how it felt to be touched. It was never enough. He had to remember it better, the memory had to last for months, had to be vivid enough for him to bear the loneliness of the empty house, the silence void of Cas' warm voice. He wanted to touch Cas now, but he wasn't going to risk waking him. 

When Dean reached Cas’ face, he saw his eyes were open.

“You’re not sleeping.” Cas’ words were quiet and steady, and Dean couldn’t help the calmness that washed over him. It didn’t last, though.

“Yeah, not the best night for me,” he muttered, barely keeping his voice from shaking. 

Cas sighed. He always knew what was on Dean’s mind. “Dean, everything will be all right. I will come back in a few months.”

“What if you won’t?” Dean blurted out before he could stop himself.

Cas raised himself on one elbow, and cupped Dean’s face with the other hand, kissing him on the forehead. “ _I will._ Dean, I will always come back to you. _You_ are my home on the land. There’s nothing that could stop me.”

Dean felt something wet in the corners of his eyes. Give it to Cas to say some sappy thing that would destroy him on the spot. He was glad Cas had added _on the land_. They both knew Cas’ true home was, and always would be, the sea. He wouldn't want Cas to lie about that.

“Maybe you could finish one of your stories,” Cas murmured, moving closer, to distract Dean, to distract them both. They had this game, where Dean told Cas old tales and they both pretended to be main characters in them. Sometimes Dean felt like this was their version of Arabian Nights, with him never finishing a story, so Cas always had to came back to hear the rest of it.

Dean tried to calm himself. “Okay. Okay. Which one was that?”

“The one about pirates?” 

“Do you remember where I finished the last time?”

Cas squinted. “Hmm… James attacked Alastair’s trade ships, stealing their cargo and killing resisting members of the crew. Henry was one of the survivors.”

Dean nodded slightly. In this story he was Henry, a sailor on a trade ship, and Castiel was James, an ex-privateer left without a job after the end of the War of the Spanish Succession. “So, Henry had always thought the conditions in which Alistair forced them to work were hellish. Like, sometimes they were transporting slaves and even they had it better during the journey. He figured that pirate life could actually be better for him than working for Alastair.”

“Of course, it would. Sailors on trade ships back then weren’t even treated like humans most of the time. I bet James took him in?”

“Well, actually James laughed at him in the beginning. Sailors frequently became pirates, but usually not during an attack on their ship. But yes, in the end, he let Henry join his crew. It wasn’t easy at first, Henry was constantly watched by the others, to make sure he wouldn’t betray them. And they always gave him the worst jobs.” 

“I’m sure James wouldn’t be like that.”

“Like what? He was a pirate captain. He cared about his ship and the crew more than about some random guy who wanted to join in.  But you’re right, like I said, that was just in the beginning. James saw that Henry was a skilled sailor and believed he could be a valuable member of the crew. He made sure Henry had a chance to prove himself, and soon enough Henry became equal with other crewmembers.” 

“And James was fond of him.”

“Yes, James was fond of him. Time passed, and Henry became James’ most trusted crewmember. And then, somewhere between attacking ships and selling stolen goods, something had changed between them. They fell in love.”

“Good.”

Cas smiled, crinkles in the corners of his eyes becoming deeper. Dean smiled back, swallowing the lump in his throat.

“It was good for some time. They sailed the seas together, they were free. They did whatever they wanted and they were happy. They went together through violent storms, and bloody attacks, and bold escapes. But finally their luck ended and they were captured. Nothing can last forever, as they say.”

“What happened after they were captured?”

Dean licked his lips. He knew how the story should end. Both Henry and James, and their whole crew, had been hanged not long after the capture. They had ended up like most pirates had. Somehow he didn’t want that ending. “They'd spend some time in prison, and then escaped. Someone from the outside helped them. Going back to their previous life was too dangerous, though. They decided they had enough money to settle down quietly, somewhere where no one would look for them. And then they lived happily ever after.”

“That’s good.” 

“Yeah. That’s good.”

***

When Dean woke up in the morning, Cas was already gone. Looking at the empty space next to him, he realized he hadn't started a new story before Cas left. He hoped it didn’t mean anything. He hoped Cas would come back to him, like he always did. To his home on the land. 


End file.
